First in a series
Re “4 Years, 5 Months Later, the Bennett Family Can Smile”
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Mr. Bennett
Two months before the six-year anniversary of his sister’s gruesome murder inside the Culver City National Guard Armory, Gerald Bennett is the target of a defamation and libel lawsuit filed by the family’s original attorney who was hired to seek damages from the state in a wrongful death case.
Robert H. McNeill Jr. and associate Allison Bracy of the prestigious downtown firm of Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt are seeking $200,000 from Mr. Bennett for not only allegedly defaming them but for “interference with contractual relations and interference with prospective economic advantage.”
The story’s ignition mark came on the afternoon of Aug. 24, 2007, when National Guard Sgt. Scott Ansman, who was married and a new father, killed the pregnant JoAnn Crystal Harris, his part-time girlfriend, with a baseball bat and other means.
From the McNeill office, Ms. Bracy told the newspaper this afternoon that there would be no comment.
Sandra Jones Anderson, identified in the filing papers as the McNeill firm’s attorney of record, declined comment and referred the newspaper to the office of the plaintiffs.
Ms. Bracy, at a point, directed the caller to one Chandler A. Parker In the McNeill office, later saying that he was unavailable, and that Mr. McNeill said the office would not make a statement.
The suit was filed in Superior Court last September, and Mr. Bennett told the newspaper that a later attorney he hired, the noted Mark Geragos, had promised to find a lawyer to represent him.
However, following a weekend of thunder-and-lightning text message exchanges, it appears that Mr. Geragos has divorced himself from the case. If he does not think so, Mr. Bennett does.
Mr. Bennett asserts that Mr. McNeill promised tens of millions in a settlement that failed to come to fruition before dismissing the lawyer who was the first choice, and that seems to have been a starting point in this strongly tangled scenario of heavily worded accusations.
(To be continued)
